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When Charlene Miller drove by a pair of
purple panties draped on a roadside shrub, she thought it was a prank.

“What are those teenage kids doing?” she thought to herself.

Then she saw more. And more.

She stopped the car and stepped out. Panties were strewn down the hillside and up in the trees
in rural Berne Township.

Whoever dumped more than 1,600 pairs of girls’ and women’s underwear near 3690 Crawfis Rd.
remained a mystery yesterday to Fairfield County investigators.

Miller discovered the underwear on Tuesday and called the sheriff’s office. On Wednesday, she
and Deputy Gary Hummel donned gloves, climbed down the hillside and began bagging the panties.

They filled 10 trash bags with 1,630 panties, Hummel wrote in the incident report.

The panties range from a children’s size 2 to extra-large granny-sized ones, with sizes for
teens and adult women in between. The styles varied from a bikini leopard print to plain cotton
underpants, Miller said.

Some of the panties were used, as Miller could tell when she spied one with a stain. Others were
new, still creased from the packaging that had held them.

The size range and variety of the panties is alarming, she said yesterday.

“Is it some pervert? Maybe this is a pervert who has been collecting this for years.”

Sheriff Dave Phalen said yesterday that his investigators are following up on a lead about
someone who might have done this.

The offense is listed on the incident report as illegal dumping, a third-degree misdemeanor that
is punishable by a maximum sentence of 60 days in jail and a $500 fine.

There was nothing else dumped.

“It’s just bizarre. There were just panties,” said Miller, 68, who was driving back to her home
with her sister when they found the underwear scene.